Tuesday, December 11, 2012

THIS JUST IN! HE COMFORTS PSY!

U.S. leader President BARACK OBAMA made sure South Korean pop star PSY
knew there were no hard feelings about his past performances at
anti-American rallies with a warm handshake in Washington, D.C. on
Sunday night (09Dec12).[. . .]And it's clear Obama has already forgiven and moved on - he greeted Psy
onstage at the Christmas concert and gave the grateful singer a hug and a
handshake.

WELL ISN'T THAT JUST PRECIOUS. PSY CALLS FOR THE DEATH OF U.S. SOLDIERS AND THEIR FAMILIES AND NOT ONLY DOES BARRY O ATTEND THE CONCERT, HE GOES TO HIS FELLOW CELEBRITY TO MAKE SURE PSY KNOWS THERE ARE NO HARD FEELINGS.

AND YOU WONDER WHY SO MANY VETERANS AND SERVICE MEMBERS ARE APPALLED BY THE NUT JOB IN THE WHITE HOUSE?

How many US troops remain in Iraq? December 12, 2011, Ted Koppel filed an important report on Rock Center with Brian Williams(NBC)
about what was really taking place in Iraq -- what 'reporters' insisted
on calling a 'withdrawal' but what the Pentagon had termed a
"drawdown." Excerpt.

MR.
KOPPEL: I realize you can't go into it in any detail, but I would assume
that there is a healthy CIA mission here. I would assume that JSOC may
still be active in this country, the joint special operations. You've
got FBI here. You've got DEA here. Can, can you give me sort of a, a
menu of, of who all falls under your control?

AMB. JAMES JEFFREY: You're actually doing pretty well, were I authorized to talk about half of this stuff.

Over
3,000 US troops have secretly returned to Iraq via Kuwait for missions
pertaining to the recent developments in Syria and northern Iraq, Press
TV reports. According to our correspondent, the US troops have
secretly entered Iraq in multiple stages and are mostly stationed at
Balad military garrison in Salahuddin province and al-Asad air base in
al-Anbar province.

Noting those 3,000 troops going into Iraq, The Voice of Russia adds today, "Another 17,000-strong force is preparing to cross the Kuwait-Iraq border over time, Iraqi press says."

Thursday DoD and the State Dept had officials in Iraq. The Defense Dept issued the following that day:

Under
the auspices of the Strategic Framework Agreement, the Governments of
the United States of America and the Republic of Iraq reaffirmed their
commitment to an enduring strategic partnership during the second
meeting of the Defense and Security Joint Coordination Committee on
December 5-6, 2012 in Baghdad.

The
meetings held at the Iraqi Ministry of Defense were co-chaired by Iraqi
Defense Minister Saadoun Al-Dlimi, the U.S. Under Secretary of Defense
for Policy James Miller, and the Acting Under Secretary of State for
Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller.

Defense
and Security Cooperation is one of the cooperation areas that were
agreed upon in the Strategic Framework Agreement signed in 2008 between
the United States Government and the Government of the Republic of Iraq
in order to strengthen cooperation in areas of mutual interest for the
two countries.

The
United States and Iraq discussed efforts to continue strengthening
their security cooperation, enhance Iraq's defense capabilities,
modernize Iraq's military forces, and facilitate both countries'
contributions to regional security. The two delegations explored
U.S.-Iraq training opportunities and Iraq's participation in regional
exercises.

The
United States and Iraq also discussed the strong and growing foreign
military sales program, a symbol of the long-term security partnership
envisioned by both countries. The United States stated its support for
Iraq's efforts to meet its defense and security needs.

Both
delegations reviewed regional security issues. They exchanged views on
the conflict in Syria and its effects on regional stability, with both
sides urging an end to the violence and support for a political
transition that would represent the will of the Syrian people. The two
sides agreed to continue consulting closely on regional security
matters.

The
capstone event was the exchange of a Memorandum of Understanding signed
by Defense Minister Saadoun Al-Dlimi and Secretary of Defense Leon
Panetta. This agreement represents the enduring strategic partnership
between the United States and Iraq, and provides mechanisms for
increased defense cooperation in areas including defense planning,
counterterrorism cooperation, and combined exercises.

Finally,
the United States and the Republic of Iraq committed to convene a third
recurring Defense and Security Cooperation Joint Coordination Committee
meeting in Washington, D.C., during 2013 to continue discussions on the
enduring security and military cooperation between the two countries.

As we noted in real time, Saadoun al-Dulaimi is not Minister of Defense he is 'acting Minister of Defense.' Back in July, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed,
"Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has struggled to forge a lasting
power-sharing agreement and has yet to fill key Cabinet positions,
including the ministers of defense, interior and national security,
while his backers have also shown signs of wobbling support." We also
noted that the DoD link did not work. It does now. It's a brief
document.

The White House got what they wanted: The right to add US troops on the ground in Iraq. Read over section two.

The Participants intend to undertake the following types of defense cooperation activities:

a) reciprocal visits and meetings by high-ranking delegations to military facilities and institutions;

b) exchanges of instructors, training personnel, and students between Participants' military academies and related institutions;

c) counterterrorism cooperation;

d) the development of defense intelligence capabilities;

e) cooperation in the fields of defense-related research and development and technology security;

f) acquisition and procurement of defense articles and services;

g)
exchanges of information and experiences acquired in the field of
military operations, including in connection with international
humanitarian and peacekeeping operations;

h)
training and exchange of information regarding the development of
military health services, military health facilities, and military
medicine training opportunities;

i)
training and exchanges of information regarding staff organization and
human resources for regulation and management of defense personnel;

j) cooperation for the development of logistics support and sustainment systems;

k) defense planning;

l) joint exercises; and

m) cooperation in the area of social, athletic, and military culture activities.

That's very clear if you understand contracts.

Sadly,
with the 2008 Status Of Forces Agreement, we learned that most people
-- including reporters -- don't understand contracts. For that reason we
did multiple and repeated walk throughs. We explained the aspect of
options. At one point, we even used Rick Springfield as an example. We
tried to make it interesting and basic. And we went over it over and
over. In the community, people understood. Outside the community, our
thanks for that was to have United For Peace and Justice loons attack
us. The SOFA, they just knew, meant after three years, it's over. Were
they lying or were that they stupid?

I'm
going to repeat what I said when I got the most ticked off: When you've
broken a multi-million dollar contract with a coporation and walked
without a lawsuit because you knew what you were doing, then sit
yourself down next to me and tell me about contract law. Until then, you
should probably just try to nod along to a conversation that is clearly
over your head. And if it helps, I didn't just break the contract, I
kept the bulk of the money.

As
we saw in 2011, the White House was attempting to re-negotiate the SOFA
or come up with a new agreement. As we said here, that was a possible
outcome. The White House team got caught on the immunity issue in 2011.
They also had a more active press which was being fed details of the
negotiations by some who did not support US troops remaining in Iraq
(for various reasons -- often solely because they didn't want Barack to
look like a liar in his 2012 re-election bid). So that ended up being
the sticky point. The press then falsely reported negotiations were
over. After their false report, we were at the hearing where both
General Martin Dempsey (Chair of the Joint Chiefs) and DoD Secretary
Leon Panetta testified that negotiations were still going on (Panetta
would state in that November Senate Armed Services Committee hearing
that he believed some agreement would be reached in 2012). A ton of
reporters were present at the hearing but only one reported that
aspect: Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times. The hearing made all
three broadcast networks' evening news -- and they all avoided the
actual news that the negotiations continued. Instead, they focused on a
'testy' exchange between Panetta and Senator John McCain that was
forgotten before the hearing ended (both men were laughing about the
exchange in the second round of questions). That really didn't matter
but ongoing negotiations did. (For coverage of that hearing, see
November 15th's "Iraq snapshot," November 16th's "Iraq snapshot," November 17th's "Iraq snapshot," Ava's "Scott Brown questions Panetta and Dempsey (Ava)," Wally's "The costs (Wally)," Kat's "Who wanted what?" and Third's "Editorial: The silences that enable and kill," "Enduring bases, staging platforms, continued war" and "Gen Dempsey talks "10 enduring" US bases in Iraq.")

Kid yourself that the news media in America is serving the public and informing them.